Speaking as the ITV show picked up this year’s TV Bafta award for Best Soap, he told how he is still thanked by strangers every day for his portrayal of the degenerative condition.

Joined by fellow cast members at the event at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, he said: “It’s extraordinary how not a day goes by that I don’t get stopped in the street by somebody saying ‘thank you very much for doing this story’, because it has affected them because of a relative who has had the disease.

“That’s hardly surprising because the Alzheimer’s Society, who have been immensely helpful, told us currently there are 850,000 people diagnosed with this disease in the UK alone, and that figure is likely to rise to about two million.

The actor was with his co-stars as they picked up the award for Best Soap at the Bafta TV Awards

“It is the biggest health problem that we have in the western world and I don’t think we are addressing it enough.

“I know we are not supposed to say anything politically, but David Cameron did commit £300 million to research for dementia and that has never been mentioned by any of the political parties in the current election campaign, and I think that’s woeful.

COULD IT BE MAGIC?

“We are living in a democracy and as such we are all politicians, and we’ve all got to do our best to help people with this condition and ultimately combat it and if we’ve raised awareness around that then I am very very proud of what we have done.”

Emmerdale was the only ITV soap to receive a nod in the category at the prestigious awards event this year, with Coronation Street failing to make the cut despite a number of hard-hitting recent story lines.